Driving With the Brakes On
by linda-seton
Summary: Chloe Sullivan, a hitchhiking Lionel Luthor and "a dark and stormy night"


Driving With the Brakes On  
  
by Linda Seaton  
  
  
The soft squeak of the windshield wipers against glass is lost to the ebb and flow of static from the radio and then a low voice. Chloe Sullivan mutters to herself as she squints out at the dark and rainslick roadway, "Tired and stupid and late and stupid and likely to drown in a ditch."  
  
She swipes at the windshield with her sleeve but her battle for visibility is a losing one with the car's heat, the fogging windows and her own frizzing hair. A trip from Metropolis back home to Smallville had taken her nearly eight hours instead of the normal three and a half. Now she is so exhausted all she wants to do was cry.   
  
"If you tear up, Sullivan, you'll never be able to see."  
  
She turns her attention back to the radio and jabs at the buttons. The AM selector jerks up and down the dial a few times before it finally catches a trace of a voice. She tunes like her sanity depends on it and after a few murky moments a relic from the 70s starts to play.  
  
"Bread. I found a Bread song."  
  
Way beyond being picky, she starts to sing along enthusiastically, "Dreams they're for those who sleep / Life is for us to keep /And if you're wond'ring /What this song is leading to..."  
  
The answer is lost to a fresh onslaught of static. Even though she knows it is hopeless, she lifts her cell phone to her ear and hits redial. She gets the sharp beep that there is no signal available.   
  
Talking to herself to try to stay awake she murmurs, "Well, in another twenty-five minutes I'll be home, it'll be 3:00 in the morning and everything will be fine. It cannot get any worse."  
  
Just then, she spots the headlights of the car cutting diagonally across the roadway. Having slid off the road and down a slight embankment, a tank-like Mercedes rests buried up to its trunk in the muck. Chloe instantly recognizes the figure flagging her down - thin form, trench coat, mullet.   
  
She brakes and Lionel Luthor moves over to her window. "You need a lift, Mr. Luthor?"  
  
"Thank you, young lady!" He flashes his broadest smile which makes Chloe remember an illustration from a storybook of "Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf".  
  
Lionel strides around the front of the car, opens the passenger door and slides into the seat.   
  
"How long have you been stranded?" Chloe asks as she resumes her brisk thirty-five-mile-per-hour pace.  
  
"A little over an hour. The storm seems to have swept not only my car off the road but knocked out my cell phone as well." He lifts his hands to the heat vents of the car and settles back into the seat. The car seems too small to contain Lionel Luthor.  
  
"Are you hurt?"  
  
"No, nothing that a hot bath won't cure." Lionel enunciates.  
  
Every syllable is charged with a weird sexual vibe that Chloe chooses to ignore. "I'm assuming you are headed for the castle?"  
  
"Yes, I am." He turns to study Chloe and she keeps her gaze directed on the road the whole time wishing she had a "No Trespassing" sign hanging around her neck. "Have we met?" Lionel asks as he shoves his wet mane back on his shoulders.  
  
"My father is Gabe Sullivan. He's one of your plant managers."  
  
"A good man to have on payroll."  
  
Chloe wonders how many times he has used that description for someone he does not really know. She watches as he shifts and turns to examine every nook and cranny of the car.   
  
He turns his full attention back to her, "And your name?"  
  
"Chloe Sullivan."  
  
"Chloe. A Greek name. Do you know the origin of it?"  
  
"It's one of the names the Greeks used to describe the goddess Demeter."  
  
"Yes. Demeter, Mother Nature. She was 'Chloe Demeter' in the spring when she was happy and the earth was alive. I take it you've heard the story of 'The Rape of Persephone'?"   
  
The sharp popping of the 'p's' seems to reverberate in the small car for a moment.  
  
"Persephone, Demeter's daughter, was out gathering flowers one day and was carried off to the underworld by Hades."  
  
"Yes, and Demeter plunged the earth into winter and famine until her daughter was returned to her. To keep all parties both miserable and happy Zeus ordained that Persephone had to live for part of the year with Hades and the rest of the time with her mother."  
  
"Kind of serves Persephone right. What kind of nature goddess goes around killing flowers?" Chloe murmurs as the car glides through a particularly deep current of water on the roadway.  
  
" 'The Rape of Persephone' is one of those tales that the Greeks do so well. A battle of wills in which there is no real victor."  
  
Chloe starts to speak and then settles for, "I suppose."  
  
The two lapse into a mildly uncomfortable silence before Lionel finally asks, "Do you know my son, Miss Sullivan?"  
  
"Sort of. Clark Kent, the guy who fished him out of the river, is one of my best friends. "  
  
"Boyfriend?"  
  
Chloe starts to laugh and Lionel gives her an inquiring look. "Sorry, it's just a little strange to be asked about my social life by my father's boss. And no, Clark is not my boyfriend. He only has eyes for Lana Lang."  
  
"An almost unnaturally pretty girl." Lionel drums his fingers against his knees. "Something soulful about her as well. But that could just be because of the beauty." He shifts in his seat and examines Chloe's face, "You are not beautiful."  
  
"How nice of you to notice. I'm not particularly soulful either - I don't write poetry or enjoy the ballet but I do own a few Aretha Franklin CDs."  
  
He chuckles, "Not afraid of me?"  
  
"A little wary but before you came into my car, to further steam up my windows, I was half-asleep behind the wheel. I'm grateful for the conversation. Even if you are probing for weak spots. A little heavy-handedly I might add."  
  
"You'll have to forgive me. I did run my car off the road and stand in a torrential rain while several cars passed by without attempting to help me."  
  
"You get their license plates?"  
  
"Of course." He pats his suit pocket.  
  
Chloe turns the wheel hard as she reaches the spar road that leads toward the Luthor manse. "Does Lex know you're coming?" She spots a few lit windows on the upper floor of the still distant castle.  
  
"No, it will be a surprise."  
  
Chloe straightens a little imagining what it would be like to be woken from a sound sleep by the booming voice of Lionel Luthor.  
  
"My son sleeps with a nightlight."  
  
Chloe laughs, "Is that all? I sleep with a nightlight, a flashlight under my pillow and a baseball bat beside my bed. Smallville is a scary place."   
  
She brakes and the car stops at the end of one of the winding walkways leading to the entrance to the house. "And you're home."  
  
"Thank you Miss Sullivan for the lift. And the conversation." Lionel swings open the door and swings his entire body out in one fluid motion.   
  
Chloe hesitates and then offers, "But Hades won."  
  
He leans back into the car and Chloe continues, "Hades got to keep Persephone for part of the year but he also managed to turn the world into a kind of hell-on-earth where everything died and nothing would grow. Hades manipulated Demeter into destroying what was most important to her." Chloe takes a breath and plunges on, "Hades made Demeter act against her nature. A lot of people would call that the ultimate victory."  
  
He smiles at her and Chloe has a sense that she is seeing Lionel Luthor at his most human. She feels vaguely nauseous.   
  
He begins to laugh as he slams the car door behind him.  
  
Chloe watches him for a few seconds as he marches up the drive to the house. With a soft exhale, she bumps the car into gear and smashes her foot down on the accelerator.  
  
Driving with her gaze fixed on the road, Chloe hears something and it takes her a moment to realize her cell phone is ringing. She scoops up the phone and presses it to her ear. "Yes?"  
  
Her face relaxes. "Hi, Dad. I'm almost home. It's been slow going with all the cats-and-dogs action." She listens for a moment. "No, I'm fine. It's just been a strange journey. I'll tell you once I'm home. See you in five." She starts to move the phone away from her face but she suddenly leans back in, "I love you, Dad." 


End file.
